Hybrid Air Vehicles has built a scale prototype of what will soon be the largest flying vessel in the world – a huge balloon made of ultra-lightweight, super-strong polyester on top of a hovercraft landing system. If it works, it could change the future of flight.
[…]
For the past 13 years, Taylor has been fighting a battle with investors, governments and the general public over the perception of the airship. ‘I’ve never seen a more peculiar industry than ours,’ he says as he leads me through the makeshift office on a bright mid-June morning. ‘There are more nutcases…’ He sighs and sips at his mug of Lady Grey. ‘You get what we call “the giggle factor”. People laugh at lighter-than-air vehicles and the guys who make them: the “helium heads”. It’s taken a long time to overcome that.’
[..]
‘We’re regularly sent unsolicited proposals telling us how to build airships,’ Durham says wearily. ‘They’re either from 85 year-olds who were once engineers in the pencil business, or little design companies who think they’ve had a brilliant new idea and this is how it should be done.’
[…]
Not everyone is convinced that ‘hybrid air vehicle’ will catch on. For one thing, it isn’t snappy and for another, the fundamental points of physics that differentiate it from an airship are beyond the grasp of most mulish lay people. As Dave Burns, the company’s steely-eyed Scottish test pilot, says wryly: ‘If it’s called an airship that’s a lot better than it could be called.’Whatever you want to call it, the new technology has just won the company (or rather, their US defence contractor ally Northrop Grumman) a contract with the United States Department of Defence to the tune of half a billion dollars. In just 12 months the team at Cardington must build a 300ft-long surveillance vehicle capable of staying airborne for 21 days at a time. It will be known as the LEMV (Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle).
Come on. Be truthful. This DOES make me look fat, doesn’t it?
They are fragile and fly in the weather. I thought this was sorted out in the 1930’s.
The major problem is the helium. Almost all of it comes from separating it from natural gas. It is rare even there. More and more uses have been found from helium and the output is spoken for.
There is another gas that would work, hydrogen. The problem there is that what was used in the Hindenburg. No money man is going to build a 21st century Hindenburg.
Flying boobs, that’s all I’m seeing in that picture.
I would agree that clever solutions often need to pass the “gee, too strange so I’ll stick to the piece of shit that I have” test.
Conservatives, by definition, like to ‘conserve’ their habits which leads to their acute tunnel vision.
Looks cartoonish? That didn’t stop the Macs from selling.
Platforms like that should be the wind based electrical generators of the future. I’m upset and pissed it not being done NOW! No reason not to inflate with hydrogen gas as well. No people on board, just clear the ground beneath them==and don’t coat the thing with explosives.
Who’d a thunk we’ve learned a thing or two since the 1930’s????
Only liberals. Ha, ha.
Silly Hoomans.
#4,
thats WHY you fill them 1 time..
Thats why you re-condense it to SAVE all you have.
——————-
for those interested, they already have a few of these developed in EU. 1 is Big enough to be used as a FIRE EXTINGUISHER.. Its used in fighting Forest fires..It holds ENOUGH WATER to be EQUAL to >10 flights of our BIGGEST airplanes.
It can Land in a PUDDLE..Fill in 30 minutes, and FLY away..try doing that with 10+ PLANES.. 10 planes NEED a place to land and fill, Dirigible LANDS on ANY LAKE and is Filled QUICKLY. FUEL isnt much of a problem EITHER..its very efficient. It can keep flying ALL DAY LONG..
They can SIT ontop of a TARGET and drop TONS of water until a section is NOT ON FIRE.
Interesting video on Helium as a super fluid:
I’d think air could just be liquified and helium taken off when it forms? Might be “expensive” but the availability is “unlimited?”
In six minutes on the History Channel:
Pawn Stars: “Corey buys a huge 12-passenger hot air balloon; classic 1960 Gibson Les Paul guitar; Prohibition period medicinal whiskey.”
If I were a rich man, I’d build my own two person dirigible. Fun to fly around.
World SkyPatrol
have fun..
what they are having fun with is Stability.
But when you consider the need for HEIGHT and cranes..This can get in the air and stay around.
Wong,
Engineers seem to have been inspired by body parts since time immemorial. I bet the first gun made someone very proud.
fATHER..
And the first Gun wasnt a gun..
It was a Mini cannon, with a WIDE front exposure, And filled with gun powder and ROCKS..Some times metal parts..WASNT ACCURATE past 50 feet. and could hit 10 people(all at once) at 50 feet.
They say these are supposed to be ‘lighter than air’ craft, I assume because the gas inside is less dense than the atmosphere outside.
What if there were an envelope that was thin titanium or carbon fiber or something really strong and light, so there could be much more of a vacuum inside…wouldn’t it be even more buoyant than helium?
Maybe they could be much smaller and more streamlined than those advertising blimps, also be powered with jet engines so they could head into the wind better. Then commuters and everyday users could fly them anywhere even on windy days. Just a thought.
(but then you wouldn’t be able to have a pipe connected to it that you could take a hit from and talk like an alien).
Stiffie,
I see your point, but it wont happen. in AWHILE..
we have to depend on GAS. SOMETHING that can be filled by a BASIC atom, and be LESS dense the AIR..
Brought to you by the department of “What could go wrong?”
Hi-tech my arse..these are reminiscent of the “cloud ships” in ancient mythos.
When they stop using “fuel” to power nonsense like this, and start tapping the Earth’s electromagnetic field to generate power as well as lift and propulsion from tuned field induction coils, then maybe it can earn a “Hi-Tech” Badge. Until then, it’s just another case of “Same old sh*t in a brand new wrapper” and now pointed at us.
In the meantime, they’ll make for a nice “cover” story for those 1 to 5 mile long “silver sausage” ufo’s that have been sighted all over the planet over the years which appear to travel at “blink of an eye” speeds when vacating the area.
—
We DO NOT need anymore surveillance. We need only point all current surveillance technology at the corrupted governments themselves to find the root cause and funding of all our problems. Sadly, ours is near, if not at the top of the list.
so there.
-s
Some great humor in the forum postings, especially #1 and #2.
But leave it to Mr. Innocence, Unicorn and Rainbows Dallas to find some way to get his views in.
Conservatives, by definition, like to ‘conserve’ their habits which leads to their acute tunnel vision.
So, JB==what YOU want is a blog devoid of analysis which is why you post the way you do?
Seems to me, you and Dallas are but mirror images of the same thing you complain of.
Very conservative of you.
#16 ECA
So, they could maybe use “light” matter instead (which is the opposite of dark matter, presumably pretty heavy).
I once heard this really funny folk song called “Helium” and couldn’t seem to find an mp3 of it anywhere. Have you or anybody else in here heard it and know where I could find it?
(I told my friends about it but they didn’t believe me, as usual)
Explain the song..
AS’ the one in the movie is called Anne’s song, and is very nice. Give me a few lyric, an I might find it.
Also,
They ARE working on Lighter metals, by injecting Micro bubbles.
And if you REALLY want Fantastic, Wait for the Balloon to become a Force Shield to hold the AIR IN. It would totally Disappear, at landing.
A style I would LOVE to see, is a Wind sail Balloon..
They should just make it in the shape of a huge penis. Because if they get this approved. Then the taxpayers have been “screwed” once more. We can’t have high speed rail development (more than a token). But we can’t live without one of the slowest means of air transport. And it’s only safe to fly in calm weather. So I guess they won’t be flying it over most of the mid-west, during tornado season.
It’s a Hybrid? Oh, please! Is it “green technology” too? The only thing new about it is the selling points (propaganda). And apparently anything can be justified in the name of Homeland Security. So Northrup Grumman gets another gravy deal, to build something useless for defense. How exactly is this thing gonna spy on the bad guys? All they have to do is look up and see it hovering overhead. And not do their bad stuff there. Move out of range, or go in doors, to make their evil plans. Unless the balloon is equipped with X-Ray Specs. I don’t see how it can spy thru roof tops. In order for most surveillance technology to work. It has to be relatively close to their targets. Close enough that the balloon would block the sun out with its size. How’s that for covert spying?
Glen,
They ARE CHEAP..Should be anyway..
They are efficient..
They are STABLE, more so then JETS..
And at 300mph, they are pretty fast..
Landing area? SMALL..Any FLAT SPOT.
Carry capacity?? ENORMOUS.. 3-5 times as much cargo as a JET.
Pressurized Helium, NO HYDROGEN..if a leak is found to be FIXED…its a quick landing.
ECA –
Come to think of it I’m not even sure it was called Helium (but it might as well have been).
It was a solo guy with a guitar and sounded like something Shel Silverstein or Biff Rose would have come up with… also there was a chorus of “gregorian monks” all singing helium style.
I at least need a few lyrics..
I can find TONS of video of persons using helium to sing.